All posts in category Health care

Far fewer small businesses have taken advantage of a new tax break for offering health care than expected, according to a new Treasury Department report released Monday.

By mid-May only about 228,000 taxpayers had claimed the small business health-care tax credit established in last year’s health-care overhaul, costing the federal government a total of $278 million in lost revenue, according to a report released Monday from the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the official number-cruncher for Congress, had earlier estimated that the tax break would cost up to $2 billion for tax year 2010 and $37 billion over 10 years.

The inspector general report found that the Internal Revenue Service had worked hard to promote the tax credit, sending out 4.4 million informational postcards to businesses that could potentially be eligible for the tax break. The tax credit is generally available to businesses that pay for at least half the cost of their employees’ health care, have fewer than 25 employees and pay them an average of $50,000 per full-time employee or less. …

An advocacy group representing the nation’s 28 million small businesses plans to send a letter to federal anti-trust regulators Wednesday expressing concerns over a pending merger of pharmacy-benefit managers, the first large group of employers to express such public opposition.

The group would be one of the first representatives of business interests to speak out about the $29 billion deal combining Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc. Pharmacy and consumer-advocacy groups have expressed concerns with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how a merger could raise health-care costs and shrink prescription-dispensing payments to drug stores.

The letter, sent by the Small Business Majority, a Sausalito, Calif.-based nonprofit organization, says a merger would “harm small business opportunities, and thereby stunt job growth.” Addressed to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, the letter urges regulators to investigate the merger’s impact on small businesses. …

Federal efforts to improve access to capital by small firms came under attack this week, as Senate lawmakers grilled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on a billion-dollar small-business lending fund that many banks used to repay previous government bailouts.

Geithner defended the fund during a Congressional hearing Tuesday, saying it was designed to allow banks to refinance costlier Troubled Asset Relief Program obligations, while including stronger incentives to lend.

Of the 332 banks that received $4 billion under the program, at least 137 used $2.2 billion to repay TARP, Treasury data show…

A small-business group opposed to the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul hopes the Supreme Court will hear the case in March, rather than schedule it in April, the last month the justices will hold arguments in their current term.

Last month, the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to review an Atlanta federal appeals court ruling that voided an Affordable Care Act provision that, starting in 2014, will require most Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty.

While the Justice Department could have asked the lower court to reconsider its decision, potentially delaying any Supreme Court ruling until after the 2012 elections, administration officials said they want challenges to the health law resolved well before its provisions take effect in coming years…

A global gym franchise is expanding into a market that researchers say could benefit from weight loss in particular.

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Snap Fitness, founded in 2003, will open up to 100 new locations at truck stops throughout the country over the next year starting this fall. Most of the Chanhassen, Minn.-based franchiser’s current 2,200 units are housed in strip malls in suburban areas.

The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University released a study in April showing that people who traveled most frequently for work were more prone to obesity than their counterparts who traveled more moderately. (For more, see “Business Travelers Pack Extra Pounds, Insomnia, Stress.”)

Peter Taunton, chief executive officer of Snap Fitness, says the privately held company sees an opportunity to grow by helping truckers slim down. It has 55 employees and is projected to generate $35 million in annual revenue this year, up from $30 million in 2010. …

WASHINGTON (AP) – A small-business group opposed to the health care overhaul is asking the Supreme Court to strike down the entire law, not just the core requirement to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

The National Federation of Independent Business filed an appeal Wednesday of a portion of the ruling by the federal appeals court in Atlanta that struck down the individual insurance requirement.

The appeals court upheld the rest of the law, an outcome the NFIB says is bad for business. The law would extend coverage to more than 30 million people who are now uninsured, many through subsidies to purchase private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid. …

The International Franchise Association, a lobbying group that has long expressed concerns about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, released a study this month claiming that franchise businesses will be discouraged from growing and hiring in 2014, when new health-care mandates are scheduled to kick in.

The report estimates that the law will negatively affect “tens of thousands” of franchises. It will allegedly impose more than $6.4 billion in increased costs, not including expenses associated with regulatory compliance, and will impact some 3.2 million full-time employees who work for franchise businesses. The study was prepared by the Hudson Institute, a think tank that promotes free-market policy.

The research has its critics. “Currently, small businesses pay around 18% more than big businesses for the same health insurance because of administrative costs,” says Karen Mills, who heads the Small Business Administration, adding that “every day, America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners are finding more ways to access affordable health insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act.” …

On Monday, Seattle became the third U.S. city to pass legislation requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees, joining Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

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The Seattle mandate establishes minimum standards for paid sick time based on company size, according to the city’s official website. Businesses with between five and 249 workers will be required to provide one hour of paid time for every 40 hours worked, while larger firms will be required to provide one hour of paid time for every 30 hours worked. The law takes effect in September 2012.

According to the legislation, paid sick days “promote the safety, health and welfare of the people of the City of Seattle by reducing the chances that worker’s illnesses will intensify or be prolonged.”

But opponents argue that such mandates do more harm than good for both employees and employers. …

America’s franchises are singing the blues, suggests a study released Thursday by the International Franchise Association.

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Business is currently lackluster and unlikely to improve much going forward, according to an August survey of 134 executives representing both U.S. franchisers and franchisees. What’s more, they say conditions today are significantly worse than they were just a few months ago.

Slightly more than a third of respondents said business conditions were “somewhat poor,” up from about 20% who said the same in a March survey that polled 370 franchiser and franchisee executives, the IFA reports. Roughly 25% said conditions were “somewhat good” in August, down from 31% in March. …

With small firms scrimping on employee benefits as the recovery stalls, a growing number of workers say they’re open to better offers from other employers, a new study finds.

Less than half of 1,412 small-business workers recently surveyed by MetLife said they felt a strong sense of loyalty towards their current employers, down from 62% in a similar survey in November 2008, the New York insurance firm reported. As many as 34% said they would rather be working for someone else, the survey found.

By contrast, a parallel survey of 1,508 employers found their perceptions of employee loyalty hadn’t changed, with 54% believing their workers were still fiercely loyal…

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America’s entrepeneurs are executives who build companies from the ground up. In Charge provides news, analysis and in-the-trenches commentary about small-business management. Produced by Sarah E. Needleman, Emily Maltby and Angus Loten, with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Have a comment or tip? Write to incharge@wsj.com.